Today is all about prep. First thing this morning I pulled my ENORMOUS turkey out of the fridge. I got it all cleaned up and trimmed and then smeared a nice salt brine all over it. Tomorrow it will have a nice butter bath before I roast it.

I am not usually a cheesecake person, but I saw the recipe on Ambitious Kitchen, and I had to make it.

The crust is made from oreo cookies, hazelnuts, and butter. In the words of Ina Garten, "How bad can that be?"

After dessert is finished I will be moving on to my table. The kids have been helping me with decorations. We cut out fall colored leaves and made some turkeys. I love having an excuse to pull out my china!

Saturday, November 17, 2012

I woke up this morning at 6:30. I was planning on going for a run. It had rained all night and the snow had turned into slush. It was still dark, but I could tell the country roads were going to be a mess. So I did what any determined southern California girl would do. I pulled on my running shoes and drove to the nearest gym....30 miles away.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

1. After almost a year of applications and evaluations it looks like we will finally be getting some help regarding Zackary's speech delays. Hooray :)

2. We are almost out of Halloween candy. I really don't know how it happened. A few lunchbox treats, a batch of monster cookies, and a snickers salad......all that's left are the butterfingers.

3. My parent-teacher conference with Max's teachers (yes, he has 2 teachers) went well this morning. The conference with Mia's teacher is scheduled for this evening. I am hoping to hear good things there as well.

4. I have barely begun to pack for our trip on Thursday and I already want to take a nap.

The high today is supposed to be 68 degrees! That means, we in southern California, are freezing!

I have the heaters on and we started the morning with a fire in the fireplace. I went to the store this morning and everyone was dressed in winter coats and boots (myself included!)

It all of a sudden made me very nervous to visit Utah this weekend. I have lived in Utah. I have lived in Tennessee. Both places had cold and snowy winters. I know what to expect; myself wearing flannel underwear, myself cuddling next to the fireplace and space heater, avoiding the outside as much as possible, and the constant dressing and undressing of children that like to go out and play in the snow until they are freezing 5 minutes later.

There are nice things about the frozen winters I suppose. Snow covered earth looks lovely from the inside of a warm house. Hot chocolate is delicious and Christmas carols seem a bit more magical when the world is white.